Unnatural England ?

Helen Phillips works in Sheffield in an office in the Cathedral Precinct. Her job is that of Chief Executive of Natural England the government's arms-length agency charged with the job of advising on all matters connected with "the natural environment".



Today Natural England produces its first report into the state of our natural environment. This means Dr. Phillips is much in today's newspapers.



The report's headlines are all about our rural landscape and our wildlife being under threat from various things such as climate change and development. There's a lot to agree with here and I hope that message gets across.



But Natural England has its critics and I am one. I share the CPRE's concern that NE does not care as much about the quality of our landscape as it should. Recent statements have suggested that green belts may be under attack even from within NE. And on shore wind farms may also be approved by NE. The beauty and tranquillity values have lost out to the biodiversity tick box agenda. Too much of their time is spent considering the deskbound and clipboard touting issues of the numbers of species. Some of this is doubtless very necessary but it seems to outweigh other factors to a significant degree. Wild nature, it seems, cannot be allowed to get on with things but has to be managed and controlled wherever it raises its unwelcome head.



On Blacka nature was getting along with things very nicely until English Nature (now part of NE) persuaded SWT to turn the place into farmland. It had to be fenced and farmed so that nature could be controlled. All the best things on Blacka are the result of nature being 'out of control'. But the conservation landscape management industry gets no return from wildness. And this industry is very cosily placed with regards to NE. So much money was wasted on fencing Blacka to put cows on it and on poisonning the trees, and much of this came straight from the public purse of NE, that we have to question very carefully every pronouncement NE makes.



A pity because there is much in this report that makes sense. Those who want to profit from development are always looking for inconsistencies and flaws in the policies of agencies like NE to discredit them across the board.